A Tale Of Three Worlds

by Sornos

Daedra vs Mortal the Key to victory

“Back! Elbow! Shoulder! UAGH!” Qa’taro shouted as he fell down the stairs and landed on those respective locations as he did so.

“Really? Just ask I could have stopped you with my biotics.” Torrin sighed when Qa’taro finished falling.

“You try asking while your everything is undergoing pain while falling at the same time,” Qa’taro weakly said as he tried to stand up only to stumble like a drunk in the process.

“Need a hand?” Torrin asked helping him up.

“You don’t happen to have an extra foot lying around, do you?” Qa’taro joked as Twilight and Spike got down the stairs.

“Okay, the Crystal Heart should be around here some-” Twilight began before breathing deeply and cringing in disgust. “Eww, what is that smell?”

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Torrin sighed.

Qa’taro took a few sniffs of the air before his eyes went wide in fear. “Torrin, Twilight, do not hesitate to strike what we see down,” he said as he drew his axe.

“I smell weakness!” A garbled voice yelled from around a corner.

“Alright I got it.” Torrin pulls his rifle from his back.

“THERE YOU ARE, MORTAL!!!” Yelled a red and black skinned creature as it charged out of it’s cover and towards the group. Torrin responded quickly and put a skull-full of bullets into it, knocking it down and killing it, before it dissolved into a purple mist.

“Daedra...Should have known Molag Bal would have wanted to aid someone of a dark disposition,” Qa’taro sneered.

“Or perhaps he wants to be sure Sombra stays dark.” Torrin said.

“Six of one, half dozen of the other,” Spike said. “Regardless of why, we need to get past however many of those things there are to save the Empire.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Twilight said as she powered her horn with a spell. “You two ready?” Qa’taro looked at Torrin and vice versa, both having determined gazes on their faces. Both shook the other’s hand before nodding in confirmation.

“Then let’s go,” Twilight said. The group rounded the corner and found the hallway choked with a good dozen or so Daedra.

“I got this!” Torrin fires off a warp attack at the group of daedra. The half dozen in range braced themselves, only to see their armor glow purple for a moment. They began to laugh, but said laughter was interrupted by Qa’taro, who imbedded his axe into the closest’s shoulder. The daedra was shocked and dazed from the strike that when Qa’taro pulled his axe out, the daedra stumbled away, trying to stay alive. Before he got far, he was lifted up by Qa’taro, who let out a savage tiger roar and slammed the back of the creature on his knee with a sickening crunch, before rolling him off.

Acting fast, Torrin pulls out his side arm and opens fire with both his weapons at the same time at the rest of the horde. The weakened daedra were mowed down and the others were jolted by the bullet impacts. He stopped his barrage for Qa’taro to charge in, stun one of them, then pick said creature up and slam him into a wall and took his knee to the daedra’s nose.

“Twilight magic support now!” Torrin exclaimed. Twilight shot out several concussive blasts at them, seeming to blind and stun the ones that Qa’taro passed.

Torrin quickly opens fire on the ones twilight hit with great hits rates landing shots in the head.

Qa’taro finished his off by throwing it to the ground and buried his axe in it’s…..

“Ow, right in the nuts. Not many worse ways than that!” Torrin said.

“Serves them right for getting in our way,” Qa’taro said before spitting on one of the dissolving corpses and muttering, “Þú ert dauður!”

“Ok why do you know Icelandic?” Torrin asked.

“Qa’taro spent time with a tempermental Nord that had no regard for personal safety from weapons...other than his own axe,” he answered.

“Ok then. Let’s move on.” Torrin took point as they moved deeper inside. A few minutes of walking, they came to a door that seemed to be oozing fear itself. Qa’taro reached for the handle, but when his hand touched it, his eyes closed suddenly and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

“Great, that idiot triggered a trap!” Sighing torrin also grabs the handel passing out.

---

Within the Dream Realm

Torrin ‘woke up’ and quickly sat up straight in shock. Looking around, he found himself in a cold looking, arena like area. Lying next to him was Qa’taro, ‘awake,’ but in shock.

“Qa’taro? What’s wrong?” Torrin asked.

“Arkay preserve us...we’re in Coldharbor!”

“That is correct, mortal,” a cold, demonic voice said. [start music] There was a loud crashing sound as a foot that seemed to be an unholy cross between a cloven hoof and dragon claws stepped into view.

“So this is a Realm of Oblivion?” Torrin asked. “How were you able to force us here?”

“That is not necessarily what I did, foolish mortal,” The being said as it stepped into view, being twice Torrin’s height and wielded a demonic mace. “For you see, most of this is just a projection of the cat’s deepest fear, but I am far too real.”

“Oh so a sort of fear trap. Would have no effect on me but it took us to you.” Torrin said. “Let me guess, we have to fight you?”

“You don’t have to fight, but I love it when my victims fight back,” the being said while licking it’s lips. “Dominion comes at a price, and Molag Bal is ready to pay it should he need it.” The mace was swung in the direction of Torrin and Qa’taro.

Torrin dodged to the side and rocketed forward with a biotic charge. While the attack hit, it didn’t seem to bother the Daedric Prince, who simply chuckled and kicked him to the side. “That got close to tickling me,” he said. “You have a skeever’s chance against a dragon when facing the Mighty Molag Bal!” He swung his mace towards Torrin, only to have the mace intercepted by Qa’taro’s axe, but it simply resulted in knocking him back, shattering the axe into unsalvageable pieces, and seemingly crippling his arms.

“Ok ow! That is nuts. By Akotosh, how do we beat this guy!?” Torrin moaned desperate enough for an answer to call upon a god foreign to him.

“Qa’taro has no answer,” he wheezed. “Never in my years as a vampire hunter, have I ever thought I would encounter the lord and creator of such beasts.”

“Now you realize your hopeless situation,” the Daedric Prince taunted. “You shall fall, Sombra will reclaim his throne and conquer Equis in my name, before I add it to Coldharbor. None shall stand in my way!” Molag Bal swung his mace downward towards the two.

“NEVER! Even if I must die I WILL STOP YOU!” Torrin exclaimed. The mace was just about to impact when a bright golden light, soothing to him and Qa’taro, but blinding to Molag Bal.

“GAH! You meddlesome dragon!” The Daedric Prince recoiled from the light, as it shone brighter and enveloped Torrin and Qa’taro. [end music] The fear the two felt was no longer and they felt energized and free.

---

Back in the Real World

“Ugh, what a horrible nap.” Torrin groaned as he got up.

“This one can only...agree,” Qa’taro agreed before he saw the shattered remains of his axe.

“Wait how did he break your axe in a dream!?” Torrin started to panic a bit.

“When it comes to the Daedric Princes, the line between ‘dreams’ and ‘reality’ can sometimes be blurry,” Qa’taro answered. “At the very least, it was just the axe and not the arms, although they do feel sore.”

“That’s good at least.” Torrin said. “So wait where is everyone?”

Qa’taro opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, two or three purple shadows moved to the two and suddenly jumped out of the ground. [start 2nd song] Qa’taro gave a cat screech and pulled out his own assault rifle. “Survival first, questions later!”

Torrin nods and opens fire only to find the bullets are not doing a whole lot. “SHIT! Bullets are useless!”

“Then claws and fire it shall be!” Qa’taro said, stowing his rifle and lighting his hands on fire before attacking...only to get briefly dogpiled by the strange creatures. Torrin used a biotic charge to close in on the creatures then starts moving with grace, hitting each one with great skill with his talons. While the strikes did little, it was more than the bullets and was more manageable.

“We need a way to deal more damage.” Torrin grunted in between strikes.

Qa’taro blasted the dogpile off of himself with his fire magic, instantly vaporizing the few that dogpiled him. “I guess magic may be our way of clearing these things out.

“That’s good for you, but I have no magic!” Torrin pointed out. He lashed out with his biotics a bit, resulting in some of the creatures getting vaporized as well. “I have to pace myself, but I can help!”

After finding the creatures’ weakness, the fight began to go in their favor. After slaying a good number of the creatures, a good half dozen bigger ones showed up from black, warp-like portals. Qa’taro rushed forward towards them and slung fire at them. While the bigger creatures were getting hit, and therefore hurt, they seemed to absorb the attacks and not seem to react to them, aside from their bellies’ jiggling.

One of them caught Qa’taro off guard and uppercut him so hard to send him to the ceiling, but not hitting it. When he came down and landed hard, one of the other creatures got ready to charge and attack.

“NO!” Torrin lets out a massive shockwave attack. Only for it to be blocked by a pillar of all things. “OH COME ON!”

The creature charged and looked like it was going to body slam. Just as it readied to jump, a young voice called out. “LOOK OUT!” Something of a bronze color rushed by and knocked the creature back, before boomeranging around and going back the way it came. Looking in that direction, there was a young drake that was bronze colored. Said drake was clearly taller than Spike, but was shorter than Torrin and Qa’taro. In his hands was a strange, key shaped weapon, which he held in reverse grip.

“Who are you and why did you save us?” Torrin asked getting a strange feeling about the newcomer.

“I’ll answer that in a moment,” The drake answered. “Take care of your friend, I’ll take care of these monsters!” The drake rushed forward towards the creatures and began to fight them. The drake’s arm almost seemed to be in several locations at once, slicing and blocking the attacks from the creatures.

Torrin nods and helps Qa’taro up. “Are you seeing this, that weapon is hurting them!”

“Yes, and for some reason, khajiit is remembering a long ancient story passed through generations of khajiit. A story as ancient as the tale of the Dragonborn,” Qa’taro responded.

“Please explain.” Torrin asked.

“It is said that the stars are other worlds, but before they came to be, there was only one world. Then, greed for power split the world into fragments, which were rebuilt and lit, becoming the stars. There was mention of a powerful ancient weapon, but the name eludes me. However, the weapon the drake holds seems to put the word on the tongue, but it cannot escape.”

“It seems almost like a keyblade.” Torrin pointed out.

“Keyblade...keyblade...keyblade...KEYBLADE!” Qa’taro shouted, before he jumped out of Torrin’s grasp and began aiding the drake. Within minutes of him jumping in, the creatures were gone.

“Thanks for your help mister?” Torrin asked.

“Please, I’m not old enough to be called mister,” the drake said as his keyblade vanished in a bright, bronze light. “My name’s Ventus, but you can call me Ven.”

“Torrin jo’gon nice to meet you.” Torin let out a talon for him to shake.

“Qa’taro, and this one never thought to meet a wielder of a sacred and ancient weapon, such as yours,” Qa’taro said, with a slight giddiness.

“Umm, what?” Ven said, clearly confused.

“Legend of your weapon has been passed down on his world.” Torrin explained.

“Wait, you’re from another world?!” he shouted in shock.

“Not willingly brought here, for both of us,” Qa’taro pointed out.

“I’m from a whole other galaxy to be honest.” Torrin admitted.

“Wow, but what about the world order?” Ven asked. “With rare exceptions, the worlds are supposed to be secret from one another.”

“Taken out of our hands at least in my case. Had I even tried to keep a low profile I would have starved.” Torrin said.

“And considering their calm, casual reaction to some of us, they assume that we, this one especially, are native to this world,” Qa’taro added.

“Not like we knew about the world order anyway.” Torrin said.

“That makes sense,” Ven admitted. “By the way, how long have those monsters been causing problems?”

“Not even a day. Normal weapons do jack squat so it’s a big problem.” Torrin sighed. “Magic seems to have an effect on the smaller ones though.”

“Alright...what were you doing in this dark, creepy hallway to begin with?” Ven asked.

“Seeking an artifact that would potentially be the means of ending the reign of a dark emperor named Sombra,” Qa’taro said. “Hopefully, our companions have managed to find it and not get caught up in any more daedra, if there were more.” Suddenly, there was the sound of something breaking.

“Wait was that the sound of shattered glass!?” Torrin exclaimed. “Oh CRAP! The barrier!” Torrin took off down the corridor.

“Akatosh, Damn It, Torrin!” Qa’taro yelled. “Let’s go, Ven. I’ll explain more later.” Qa’taro and Ventus took off after Torrin. The corridor led to a spiral staircase, and at the top of the staircase was a mess of a problem.

Twilight Sparkle was trapped in a cage of dark crystals while Torrin seemed to be in an intense grapple with a strange Crystal Monster. To Qa’taro, it looked like a combination of a tall Frost Atronach, dark crystals, and one of the monsters that Ven helped fight off.

“Little help here! This thing is one of the monsters, but on like crack!” Torrin grunted as he held on to the thing’s back.

“Got it!” Ven said as he rushed in and started going crazy on it’s legs, slicing, hacking, and casting spells. Qa’taro decided to try and get Twilight out of her cage, with barely any success.

“Is there nothing I can do? All this power, and I can’t even help my friends!?” Torrin muttered. He was suddenly grabbed, pulled off, and thrown into Ventus, knocking him down and causing him to lose grip on his keyblade. Torrin saw it and quickly grabbed it and tossed it to him. Ven caught it and managed to intercept the monster as it charged towards Qa’taro and Twilight.

Just as Ventus blocked the attack, a bright light started to shine from outside the tower. He took advantage of the light, as it distracted the monster, and managed to give it a solid strike, vaporizing it.

“Is that!?” Torrin exclaimed in shock as he looked outside. Ven followed suit and saw a beam of light coming from the castle’s base to a bipedal figure, who seemed to be redirecting the beam into a patch of darkness.

“Terra!” Ventus shouted before jumping out of the tower and slid down the side of the castle

“Must be a friend of his.” Torrin said.

“Hmm...Terra for Earth, Ventus for Wind...This one would find it funny if he had a friend named Aqua,” Qa’taro joked. After he finished that, a bright light seemed to build from the castle’s base and shoot upwards, forming a new shield and everything turned shiny, including...

“Why does Torrin look so enticing?” Qa’taro said, unaware of his own current crystal form.

“I feel at peace. Why I wonder?” Torrin muttered. He then noticed that he was holding something in his right hand. Taking a look he saw… “Wait is this also a keyblade!?” Torrin exclaimed quite loudly, examining his new weapon.

“Eh?” Qa’taro said, shaking his distraction out of his head and looking at the weapon. “Ironic. Qa’taro loses a melee weapon and you get one. And you normally don’t seem to be the type to fight up close...mostly.”

“Well I can up close. It’s just it’s not my primary fighting method.” Torrin said. “Now what do I use this for?”

“Hmm, a keyblade, combination of ‘key’ and ‘blade,’ well, maybe it’s use is in the name,” Qa’taro said.

“Fair enough. What sort of powers do I now hold I wonder.” Torrin muttered.

“We can worry about that later,” Qa’taro said. “In the meantime, let’s go check on the Princess and that dimwit husband of hers. We can give her the rest and food she may need and give him the brain he definitely needs.”

“Yes very much so. Sounds good.” Torrin agreed.

Author's Note:

i hope the hint this chap gave was not enough to turn people off, but it just felt right to make this a triple crossover.

Comments

[The Old Khajiit]

Kingdom fucking Hearts. KINGDOM FUCKING HEARTS!

But really, keep it up!